Australia's top stock exchange is having an awful Monday

The week is off to a horrible start for Australia's top stock exchange.

ASX frustrated investors by failing to open on time because of a technical glitch. When it eventually did begin an hour and a half later, some stocks still weren't trading. Less than three hours into the shortened session, it went down again, this time for good.

One of the biggest exchanges in the Asia-Pacific region, ASX(ASXFY) repeatedly apologized for the day's chaotic sequence of events.

CEO Dominic Stevens said the crisis began with "a hardware failure" that set off a cascade of problems that affected the trading system.